


In a Photograph

by noimalive



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, and i thought that would be funny, and rowan from iwbft, based on her not knowing who tf he is, based on oseman verse, i want kuwei involved idk how, inej as frances and nina as aled sort of, jesper as lister and wylan as jimmy i guess, kaz as rowan, people ship frances from radio silence, this is a lil ooc and ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24066754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noimalive/pseuds/noimalive
Summary: The Dregs are the most popular boy band in the country. Probably the most popular band. Period. Jesper, Wylan, and Kaz might be the biggest names in music right now. And Inej, one half of a YouTube duo, has no idea who Kaz Brekker is. Or at least she doesn't care.based on the osemanverse ship of frances and rowan (all you need to know is he's in a boyband and she's a podcaster/youtuber who has no idea who he is, but you can search frowan on tumblr for a visual and summary)
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47





	In a Photograph

“Excuse me.” 

Kaz turned around. A girl in a dark blue suit stood beside him, expectantly. She was holding a camera, and Kaz already knew what she was going to request. 

“Could you take a picture?” she asked. 

Kaz nodded, then took her phone. “Do you want the rest of the boys in it, too?” 

The girl looked confused for a moment. “Not to make this awkward,” she said, “But I was hoping for a picture of me and Nina. The photographers are too distracted with some boy band that’s playing tonight, and I really want some pictures of us.” She gestured toward another girl a few feet away, who looked vaguely familiar. 

Kaz felt heat behind his cheeks. It was obvious she had no idea who he was. “Yea, of course I’ll take some pictures for you.” 

She grinned and stood next to her friend. They were fashionably matching, with the skirt of the other girl’s dress the exact same shade as the suit. He tried to remember where he had seen them before- maybe at another premier or awards show? Their voices were more familiar than their faces. 

After they thanked him and walked away, Kaz could hear the other girl- Nina- say, “Inej, that was Kaz Brekker! You asked Kaz Brekker of The Dregs to take our picture.” 

To which she responded, “Who?” 

Nina and Inej- the names clicked. They were well known YouTubers. Jesper was a fan and had shown him and Wylan a few of their videos. Sometimes they did feminist commentary, other times the videos followed more of a vlog style. Kaz remembered there was one where they reviewed the top ten waffle places in the city, which had resulted in permanently long lines at his favorite cafe. He was pretty sure there was also a podcast- or maybe they had gotten their start with the podcast? Somehow he had never noticed how bright Inej’s eyes were. It must’ve been the camera work. 

Kaz rejoined his group in the corner the Dregs had unofficially taken over. He posed for a few dozen camera flashes as Wylan nudged him. “They were asking where you were,” he mumbled through his close-lipped smile. 

“Sorry, I got asked for pictures.”

“Of course you did,” Jesper said. As always, Jesper stood in the middle, with Kaz on his left and Wylan on the right.  
“No, like I took pictures for someone. Inej Ghafa and Nina Zenik, actually.”

As Kaz expected, Jesper’s annoyance slipped away. “No way. That’s actually amazing. I literally want to thank them for that.”

“I think they reviewed one of our songs once,” Wylan added. “Or maybe it was in the background of a video.” 

“Well, Inej doesn’t know who we are, so I doubt it.” 

“Damn,” Jesper laughed. “I thought it was just funny that they had you take a picture. But this is kind of better.” Kaz rolled his eyes, finally free to do so, since the photos had stopped. 

The Dregs were the main performers for the night, so they wouldn’t have much time to watch the show from the audience. Kaz didn’t mind that so much- awards shows were usually pretty boring and the audience had to look enthusiastic throughout. If the cameras were trained on you at the wrong moment, people would see your reaction and it would become a whole thing. One time Kaz had yawned while an older star received an award, and Twitter had accused him of disrespecting past generations of musicians.

Backstage, the three boys warmed up for a few minutes. Wylan lightly strummed his guitar, anxiety plain on his face. Jesper hummed a few notes and fiddled with his polished drumsticks impatiently. Kaz just pulled on his signature black gloves. He didn’t really get nervous. 

The show’s host- some comedian named Per Haskell- was introducing them onstage. “Give it up for the biggest boy band in Ketterdam, the Dregs!” 

Jesper walked out on stage to thundering applause, then Kaz and Wylan followed him. They took their places and started the first set. As Kaz played the last chords, he thought how he preferred playing shows like these over concerts. This audience cheered loudly, that was true, but they were celebrities, too. They weren’t obsessive fans- or at least they knew what it was like to have obsessive fans. Maybe that was why his earlier encounter with Inej had struck him so. She hadn’t known who he was and apparently did not care. 

\---

After returning to her seat, Inej typed up a few notes in her phone. It wasn’t everyday that you presented an award, and she wanted to remember how she felt in the moment. It would be good to have notes on the whole process, start to finish. That made for the best stories to share in a video. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t remember it all. It was just that she needed to get down all the details the way she had thought about them in the present, like the disgusting shade of orange of the hat she had stared at the entire time while presenting (before realizing the hat belonged to an extremely famous actor). 

Nina never took notes. When she chose the theme for a video, she would barely write a script, just an outline of a few things they should say or do. It was why they worked so well together. The best videos combined free-form and planned content. That was the most fun for the audience and for the girls. 

Of course, the podcast had been completely scripted. Inej kind of missed those long nights working on the podcast. Inej would read the week’s story aloud to Nina for her to say her critiques and ideas for art. Then, they would take turns reciting the script into the single mic. Inej voiced the narrator, and Nina would read for whatever companion or enemy the narrator had that episode. They modified the voices, anyway. When listeners had figured out their identities, Inej had been uncomfortable. This thing had been secret for so long, and she had thought that was what had made it engaging. But eventually she grew used to her name being attached to the podcast, and realized getting to interact with her fans was… actually nice. Nina, of course, had no problem with her name being out there. YouTube had been the natural next step. 

The show finally ended as the host handed off the last award. Nina and Inej had planned on getting dinner with some other YouTubers afterward, but Inej thought she might be ready to go back to their apartment. It was surprisingly exhausting to sit through countless presentations. She turned to Nina to tell her this, but had accidentally elbowed someone behind her. 

“Sorry!’ she called, then paused. It was the boy from earlier, the one who had taken pictures for them. “Kaz, right?”

He looked surprised. “You know who I am?” 

“Of course, you’re the guy who took pictures for us. They turned out really good, by the way, thank you!” 

His eyes softened. “You’re welcome?” 

Inej remembered something else Nina had said about Kaz. “Oh you’re in that band thing right?”

“Yea, did you hear us play?”

She thought about it for a second. “I think I was in the bathroom, sorry!”

“We played three times. Surely you weren’t in the bathroom for all of them.” He said this flatly, but his mouth curved up at the edges. 

“Probably not. But I couldn’t sit through the whole thing. Per Haskell’s delivery is painful.”

“Agreed. I have no idea how that man has his own late night show. I personally think the acceptance speeches are worse, though.”

“Oh Saints, the worst! If I had a minute to thank everyone, I would at least try to make it heartfelt. And if I have to do fake tears, it’ll at least be entertaining” 

Kaz laughed, a lighter sound than Inej was expecting. “You were good, by the way. When you two presented the award, I -” 

Someone called for him in the hallway. “I have to go, sorry. It was nice meeting you.” Kaz extended his hand, as if for a handshake, which struck Inej as strange, and then she saw he was wearing gloves, which struck her as even stranger. He pressed something into her hand, then headed out. Inej was a little embarrassed, but mostly pleased, to find he had given her his number.

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably a one-shot but who knows. regardless, the next video from nina+inej is definitely about the dregs.


End file.
